Friends

Since it is only around 4 hours drive away from Cavite, Quezon has become our getaway of choice for the weekend. We were on the road as early as 5AM and reached our first stop in Lucban by 10AM (including a breakfast stop over in Los Baños, Laguna).

Where to Go

A trip to Quezon is not complete without paying a visit to Kamay ni Hesus in Lucban. It is a pilgrimage site where you can attend a healing mass and walk more than 300 steps up the hill where you can reach the Risen Christ statue. You can also buy religious keepsakes here. Admission is free.

Where to Stay

Across Kamay ni Hesus is Batis Aramin Resort and Hotel. If you are looking for a resort with swimming pools, well appointed rooms and relaxing views, then this is for you. They have villas, family rooms and hotel-like rooms perfect for barkada get-aways. We stayed at their Marikit rooms; each with 2 queen size beds, ensuite bathroom with hot/cold shower, aircon, coffee/tea making facility, complete with toiletries. There’s also a spacious balcony leading to the swimming pool.

Located at the foot of Mt. Banahaw, expect great views and an abundance of greens since the resort is surrounded by trees. Enjoy cold spring water in the swimming pool, perfect for beating the summer heat! If you are into thrill, they also have facilities for ziplining, wall climbing and rappelling.

You can also bring as much food as you like and use their grill free of charge. If you are not into cooking, they have a restaurant where you can order mostly Filipino food. We brought food for grilling and also tried some food from the resto. Their lomi, sinigang, and hardinera (Lucban dish like an embotido) were all gooood! 😋 Breakfast was also included which was served at one of their pavillions. Lucban longganisa, fried rice, eggs, bread and spread, watermelon to fuel the day. 👍

Rates go from P3000 and up, depending on the room type. Check their website / FB page for updated rates and reservation.

Where to eat

For affordable lunch, go to Mustiola’s at the town proper. Named as the best carinderia in town, you can enjoy lutong ulam starting at P45 per order. They also have cook-to-order dishes like lechon manok, pancit and more.

For nature themed dining, try Kamayan sa Palaisdaan in Tayabas. A 15-minute drive from Batis Aramin will take you to this floating restaurant which serves tasty Filipino food; great for sharing. I recommend their pork sisig, ginataang tilapia and steamed talong. 😋 Budget is around P300 per person.

For pasalubong, stop by Eker and Ely’s near Lucban Church. They have different choices of packed goods that you can take home with you. They also sell Lucban longganisa by the dozen. These are garlicky and slightly sour pork sausages which originated from this town.

Me and my friends definitely had a great time during our visit, especially at the resort and with the food! 😂 Quezon is one of the nearby towns that is worth the visit this summer. They also celebrate the Pahiyas Festival every May.

It was a road trip + food trip night last saturday for me, Chino, Ria and Mau. This time we went to BF Homes
Subdivision in Paranaque to find some good eats there.

We all know Aguirre Street is a stretch of food heaven. But of all the choices there, Flaming Wings won by unanimous decision.

The place is small so make sure to peel your eyes to easily spot it. Or better yet, look for Ritchie’s Diner, a much bigger resto, in front of Flaming Wings.

What better food to try than chicken wings, of course! So we had 15-pc wings in smoky barbeque sauce. Unexpectedly, each wing part was split into 2. So, the 4 of us had 30 pcs of chicken to devour haha.

15-pc wings cost P735 with your choice of sauce and dips (we had bleu cheese and ranch). Giving it 3.8/5 rating. Good barbeque wings but not the best. Still, I had about 12 pcs haha.

To level the tangy taste of the wing sauce, we had some pasta too. Those are carbonara (P235-full), creamy seafood linguini (P145-regular) and seafood marinara (P145-regular) respectively. I’ve only tried carbonara which is okay, usual carbonara. hehe Friends say other pasta are good though.

After a filling dinner, we headed to another place few blocks down to grab coffee. We were eyeing at Larcy’s Cupcakerycafe for its clean, cozy facade.

They have several cupcake flavors on display and we tried the salted caramel one. Since we are all full, we only had a drink each. Chino and Mau had Iced Mocha, Ria had hot Mocha while I had frozen hot nutella. I’m giving my drink 4/5. Nothing bad about it, nothing amazing too. Ambience takes it all. I still believe food and drinks at Cafe Antix are better. haha

Cupcake is moist but generally not a fan of those. I find it pricy at P85 each.

Apart from these 2, there are other restos in that street which looks promising. From Japanese, Filipino, American food; they all look worth coming back for. Another realization is that I didn’t know malayo pala ang BF homes haha

No work today but I am up early for a 5AM trip from Cavite City to Makati to meet up with my friends, Ria and Liyan. We’re going to Hatch22 for breakfast! 🙂

I am the mastermind of this activity. Knowing these 2 are based in Makati, I set up a morning with them to try this newly opened bakery/cafe. We were in Rockwell before 8 am, got a table for 3 and skimmed through the menu. We basically knew what we are going to order though, coz we did our research! Hehe

Interiors are modern with natural light coming in from the floor-to-ceiling glass windows. Wait staff are prompt as
well and food was served in about 15 minutes. I started off with a cappucino, Liyan got a banana shake and iced tea for Ria. Hatch iced tea was really bitter so if you are not a fan of such, opt for the sweetened one.

Now, the star of our breakfast: the food! 🙂

Liyan and I both had the Crispy Delimondo Corned Beef. They used spicy Delimondo corned beef cooked to a crisp, served with garlic rice, crunchy egg and seared tomatoes. This is the reason why I wanted to eat here and I am very satisfied! Serving is big enough to keep you full til noon. (P340)

For dessert, we shared over Hot Fudge and Toffee Ice Cream Puff (P190) and English Trifle (P210). The first one is basically cream puff stuffed with toffee ice cream, simple dessert nothing amazing. 😦 The other is a glass full of sponge cake, custard, banana, cream and topped with blueberry jelly. This one is better. Not too sweet and suprising flavors layered together. 🙂

Service: 3/5
Ambience: 4/5
Food: 3.5/5
No wifi by the way hehe but in total it was worth waking up early for. 🙂

PS: one of the owners, Erwan Heussaf came in at around 9.30am you might want to drop by around that time 😀

Hello there 2013! Here comes my first blog post for the year, inabot nang Feb 4! hehe Well, I’m waiting for iTunes to download, there are 4 minutes left so I decided to press a new blog entry.

2013 has been good so far.. telling by how January went. I spent the first day of the year at work in Makati. Me and my night shift buddies welcomed the new year in the middle of Buendia Ave, right on the street with a bottle of beer. After 20 mins of rushed booze, we’re back to work! hehe

Davie, Che, JM, Borge, Carla, Me and Jaybon.

First half of January has been busy for us and GudVibes clothing.

January 5th was the opening of GV Tiki Stop / mini event at Alima, Bacoor. We had our ka-vibes to there to support the event where Rapido and other local rappers performed. After the opening, we headed to Yakinihaw to celebrate Icaruz’s birthday.

We also had another major event: Kalampag : Diwang Magdiwang last Jan. 12, 2012 at the Noveleta Rooftop. This event was in cooperation with DPI printing c/o Sir Kon and with Tabakk c/o BLKD. This event has been set to provide entertainment to Caviteños and mainly let them experience the thrill of Hip Hop concerts and an actual rap battle. We have organized some of the biggest Fliptop emcees to come to Noveleta for a night of fun!

We had about 300 people in attendance and although there has been some set backs with the production, the feedback from the audience has been good. Suffice it to say that the event ‘survived’. hehe All in all, the emcees and the crowd had enjoyed the show, which makes this a successful event for us.

We are also going to be an sponsor of another major event this February. I will be posting about that soon. 🙂

I’ll try and keep this updated again since I will have a lot to post about. Summer is coming, blog posts are coming as well! weeee!

I don’t know about you, buy 2012 has been awesome for me in almost all aspects of my life. Of course, there are some unfortunate events but that doesn’t compare to all the good things and blessings that happened all year long.

Here is a brief recall of my 2012 highlights 🙂

January

I have started 2012 attending weddings. 2 of my good high school friends got married in January, one after the other. These events paved the way for us to get together again. I am closer with She and I tagged her’s as the Wedding that Made Me Cry. 🙂

February

Another birthday for me. 🙂 This time, I have spent it with family at a dinner buffet in Kartini Hotel. I turned 26 this year. Wew!

Aside from that, another good friend of mine, Kathie, got married last February. This is the most anticipated wedding of the year and the wait was all worth it. 🙂

March

This is my summer month of 2012, 3 outings in total. 🙂

I have spent a Weekend in Pangasinan with my high school friends: swimming, food tripping, taking photos and reminiscing on good memories.

I also had an overnight stay in Subic, courtesy of “the office”. It was a weekend bonding with colleagues this time. By the way, they serve very good food there in Grande Island Resort. 🙂

To cap off March, I also had a mini get together with my college friends in our usual hide out in Kawit. Overflowing food on the table with our favorite beer of course.

April

This is another jam-packed month! Let’s start with my niece’s Hawaiian themed party. This is the first event of 2012 that I have organized hehe.

This year also marked our 10th year batch anniversary. My high school friends organized our class reunion in an eat-all-you-can dinner at Ester Robina complete with uniform shirts, souvenir tumblers, raffle and bingo game where I won a rice cooker nyaha!

Gudvibes Clothing also took part at United South Music and Arts festival in Las Pinas. This event was organized by TigaSouth to showcase the talents, artwork and clothing lines from the South.

May

Being the Laker fan that Nochi is, we have also attended the Lakers Philippines meet up at the National Sports Grill. This is in time to watch the Lakers vs Nuggets game.

We also attended the Pahiyas Festival last May 15. It was a day of colors and creativity courtesy of the people of Lucban, Quezon. 🙂

June

Although there are other happenings this month, I will focus the highlight to the GV Store Opening. This isn’t just an event, this is a milestone for us. After a year and a half, the first GudVibes Store has opened in Magdiwang, Noveleta. 🙂

July

Of all the shirts that GV has released this year, the Carpe Diem shirt is one of the best sellers (of course that is besides the Blood Shirt). Several personalities has worn this shirt, making it one of the most seen.

August

Last August 11 was the first event ever held at the GudVibesStore. COLLABARZON is the release event of the Calabarzon shirt that is a collaboration with one of our GV Friends, BLKD. This is the first time the store sold out shirts, with people lining outside and enjoying the performances of Calabazon emcees.

After a week, the 4108 Tee Xhop has opened. They are the first reseller of GV Clothing located in Tanza.

September

Another productive month. On September 17, we met up with Mr. Nick Automatic, Nicolo Nimor at Eastwood. He is Cebuano and very nice. He is the man behind the biggest indie clothing line in the Philippines. He even posed wearing the GV Carpe Diem shirt!

On a more personal note, we also celebrated our 3rd Tutri Anniversary this year. We attended morning mass in Our Lady of Lourdes Parish Chursh in Tagaytay and had luch at Hawaiian Bar-Be-Que.

October

In preparation to the GV anniv, we had a meeting with our special guests Abra and Josef Amarra at Starbucks Glorietta. I tried to keep it professional that night but deep inside I am starstuck and in awe that I am having coffee with these 2 guys. haha

Of course, since its Halloween, we also had our mini event at the store. The Frankentiki shirts were released that day with free isaw and betamax for everybody!

November

This is the month of anniversaries. I celebrated my 2nd anniversary at my work. Yun lang naman hehe But the bigger celebration was the GudVibes 2 Year Strong event last Nov.17. It was held at the Noveleta Rooftop with around 150 in attendance from family, friends, to poloticians, ka-vibes, fans and more. The event was highlighted by performances by Icaruz, BLKD, Abra and Josef Amarra. I consider this as the pinakahighlight of my 2012. This is a nice reminder of how good 20112 has been for GV and in general.

December

2012 will not end without more memories. We had a meeting with Loonie and Ron Henley for next year’s gig and lucky enough to be invited to the HomeGrown Album Launch at University of the Eat in full VIP access. Yes, the perks! hehe

We have also been invited to join the Holiday Urban Bazaar last Dec. 15 at The Collective, Makati. Along with other brands, the event showcased the growing urban market and lifestyle in Metro Manila. Our booth was swamped (in a good way) by customers that event.

The GV Christmas Party was last Dec. 22. where else? at the GV Store of course. 🙂 Tequila and beer to keep our solid ka-vibes warm.

2012 ended with the final batch release of the Blood II shirts at the Store. Almost a hundred people lined up outside as early as 2PM to get their own shirt for the last time. 🙂

It has been indeed an awesome 2012. This has also been the year that I had my most number of online purchases from shirts to party supplies, store supplies, and more. I have also been addicted to milk tea half way through the year haha. I started Instagram as well which is the reason I slowed down with blogging, but hopefully catch up next year. I have been more aware, Fliptop wise haha, shook hands and took photos with the emcees as well.

I hope you also had a wonderful year as I did and I wish you all an equally awesome 2013. Happy New Year! 🙂

We were in Tagaytay at around 9AM considering we left Cubao at 7. The travel is seamless since it is Sunday Morning, no traffic! 🙂 We headed straight to church and we’re just in time for the mass.

Our Lady of Lourdes Parish is beautiful. The church is new, according to the priest and well designed I must say. It is nice, clean,big church with 6 chandeliers hanging from the ceiling. Since it is windy in Tagaytay, it wasn’t hot inside the church at all. I wasn’t able to take photos, I got shy hehe.

I took photos outside, however. The grounds of the church has a retreat house feel to it. You know, clean and quiet type despite many locals and tourists roaming around.

They also have a candle chapel right across the church. There are no attendants there, you get and pay the candles out of honesty. There is a box where you can drop your P5 and get a candle. I offered 2 candles, blue and pink. Blue for harmonious relationships, peace and financial stability. Pink for good health, expression of joy and thanksgiving for intentions already granted by the Lord. Those 2 are the most apt candle meanings for me and serves the best description of why we went to church this day.

After walking around and some kwentuhan, it’s time for the main event: lunch! haha Chino confessed that he is hungry so we did a 5-minute walk to The Original Hawaiian Bar-B-Que. I have been eyeing this place for some time, and finally, we get to try it. This resto is inside The Boutique Bed and Breakfast, one of the popular boutique hotels in Tagaytay.

The ambiance is winning at first look. Upscale white building with an overlooking view of Taal Volcano, very quiet and relaxing. But the thing that made us try the resto is the food. Their menu consists of different Hawaiian inspired food, from katsu to loco moco to Kalua pork and more with fair price.

This is their famous Original Hawaiian Baby Back Ribs! Fall-off-the-bone and tasty ribs for the win! We ordered medium ribs (P520) which can easily serve 2 to 3 people. And I must say, this is indeed very good ribs, no wonder this is a best seller. The sauce is blended well, not to overpower the tangy rib sauce. Really worth coming back for. 🙂

We also had Big Island’s Chicken Katsu (P310). Well, I have tried some of the best Chicken Katsu in Hawaii, and I must say this one “seems legit”. I have started to get the impression that the people behind the resto really did their research well. This is big chicken breast portion coated with Macadamia nuts and bread crumbs deep fried to perfection. Dipping sauces are also good.

This one was Chino’s choice: the Golden Corn Rice (P180), good for 4 persons. I’ve never thought that corn can blend well with rice. This is also another best seller of the resto and a good accompaniment to ribs and katsu.

As a first timer, I’m giving the food 4.5 stars out of 5. Nothing really bad that I can say. Very yummy and served within 10 minutes. They have a lot more in their menu that I am curious about and I hope we can come back again soon. This is something that I would recommend to everyone, you don’t even have to like Hawaiian food to enjoy this place. 🙂

The Original Hawaiian Bar-B-Que is located at the ground floor of The Boutique Bed And Breakfast at 45 Aguinaldo Highway, Silang Crossing East, Tagaytay City.

Pahiyas Festival is a colorful feast celebrated every 15th of May by the people of Lucban, Quezon in honor of San Isidro Labrador. It is the farmers’ thanksgiving for a bountiful harvest with a grand display of colorful rice wafers, fruits, vegetables, and handicrafts adorning every house in the town.

This year, we have decided to take part with the celebration. 🙂 Took us a little more than 4 hours drive from Cavite to Lucban, around 6:30 AM the car is parked and we’re ready to go!

The weather was a little off the whole morning. It will rain for five minutes then there is sunshine the next. Still, that did not stop us and all the other tourists and locals to roam around and enjoy the sight.

The decorations are really impressive. Overwhelming colors (good thing), creativity and resourcefulness are all you will see around the streets. The attention to detail is also incredible. You’ll get surprised on which material they used and how they made those into a beautiful work-art hung outside their houses.

These are just some of the wonderful houses around the barangay. Di nakakasawa tignan despite all the colors. 🙂

Going there will not be complete without the famous Pancit Habhab and Kiping (these are the ones used for decoration and is made of rice). Each serving is P10, enough for merienda :

Some houses let people go up their houses to take photos from the window. Sayang walang free food. Hehe And since we have been walking around for around 5 hours, it’s time for lunch Lucban style.We went to Buddy’s, a local restaurant whose specialties are of course Lucban delicacies. As expected, the place was jam-packed but good thing they have good and organized service.

In the afternoon, the parade was the most anticipated event. It was a showcase of more artistry of Lucban locals. There was a “Parikitan” where gowns made from kiping are worn and modeled for the crowd. There was also a Pancit HabHab competition on cart and floats. And lastly, carabaos and horses on parade which are farmer’s main helper for harvesting.

All in all, the Pahiyas experience has been very good. The travel from province to province was sulit for the ultimate eye-feast that the festival offered. No wonder many tourists, photographers, friends and families go there and celebrate with the people of Lucban. 🙂

This is our homebase: Crystel’s. We go here almost yearly (except last year) to catch up, get full, drink and take loads of laugh. Sayang lang, we’re not complete this year.

Anyway, we still had fun. It is potluck as usual and also almost the same food that we have when we get together.

Gretz also brought her signature Cassava for dessert. While Rob and Juevz took care of softdrinks and wine. But the night will not be complete without something that has been a huge part of our college life: the ever reliable Red Horse Mucho!

A box of beer and some good ol’ reminiscing with friends was indeed a good night. Not to mention Juevz’s classic jokes and effortless punchlines, benta lang talaga! hehe We also browsed at old college photos which are very nostalgic! haha ampapayat at mga haggard! haha those were the days when we’re only worries are quizzes, projects and where is the gala.. good times!

We “called it a night” at 12AM. And it was indeed a nice, laid back night with friends and I hope we can do it more often. I smell like beer up to now though hehe #goodfriends #goodnight #goodtimes

We are sent to an overnight stay at the Grande Island Resort in Subic, Zambales to swim, unwind, get drunk and basically have fun.. and that’s what we did!

It is a 3-hour drive from Makati plus a 20-minute ferry ride to the island. Impressive, I can say, because the resort is an island all to itself. Plus lei greeting upon arrival to add an island feel to it.

Then we went straight for the food. According to the previous batch that has been here, the food is great. And they are right. All 4 buffet meals that was served to us are yuuuummmm. Many of us have probably gained weight overnight. Around 1PM, it’s game time! And by that, I meant inuman time! No time was wasted and before we know, we have mangoes peeled, chips opened and vodka shots going around. By 4PM, 2 bottles are down and it’s time to swim and take more pictures.

Then dinner time though I am still full. Food was mostly grilled and served by the beach which is a nice add-on to the summer.2 hours after that, I am asleep while they are up drinking and playing charades and pinoy henyo hehe.It was a slow night so I got sleepy even before drinks were served. Anyway, it is fine with me.

My favorite meal that was served is the breakfast. I ate a lot and really enjoyed everything. hehe Then more booze after that, still vodka. Then lunch , then it was time to go home. I didn’t swim or ride the banana boat with them. I basically just ate, sleep, drank and took photos there. But it was time well spent for me since that it is my definition of fun. 🙂

“Tired but happy.” Add fulfilling, fun, busog, sunburned, and more to that! 🙂 As cliche as it may sound, this is a fun trip despite the 5 hour drive to and from. Good thing our driver, Kuya Rey, is pegging a drag racer. 🙂

I just got up from our 2 day trip in Pangasinan with my good high school friends. And I have just discovered rashes around my left wrist and a fat bruise on my right torso. Anyhow, it was all worth it.

03/10/2012 6:30 AM. Touchdown Bolinao. Grabbed a quick breakfast in a carinderia beside the St. Joseph Church. Then off to our first stop: Falls No.2. There is also Falls No.1 but locals said it’s not good to take pictures there anymore. There is also Falls 1 1/2 but they said, “di pa nadidiscover” so they told us not to go there. This is a good buena mano to our trip. Clear waters, and nothing but greens and silence. All you hear is the sound of the water flowing through the falls. Not to mention, we had it all to ourselves, no other groups came with us.

Next stop is the St. James The Great Parish. They say that if it was your first time in a church, you should offer a candle and make a wish. So we did exactly that. Right after, we headed straight to the Bolinao Lighthouse. It was 11:30 AM with the heat of the sun beaming directly to us. But that didn’t stop us from taking pictures. 🙂

After that, syempre lunch time na! 🙂 Our choice of lunch is at the La Parola El Restaurante de Bolinao which is just along Patar Beach where we will swim later. Affordable food, and yummy as well. (Actually, lahat naman ng kinain namin during the trip eh masarap hehe). Menu for lunch: Sinigang na Hipon, Inihaw na Liempo, Calamares, Papaitan, Tinolang Manok and Lechong Kawali.

This is one of the highlights of our trip for me. I am not well traveled as much as my friends are and I am impressed by the Patar Beach. Crystal clear blue waters with strong waves rushing through the shore. This is nice and kinda reminded me of HI. Another good point is that it was not crowded. Swimming is free but the cottages cost P150 to P200. But I am not sure if we paid for ours, I don’t think anybody made singil to us hehe. We stayed at the beach until sunset. 🙂

After hours of sun bathing, swimming and being thrown around by waves, we deserve some good dinner. 🙂 We headed for an hour drive to Alaminos, where we are going to stay for the night. We checked in at around 7PM and had dinner at the Island Tropic Hotel and Restaurant. Good food as well. 🙂 Menu for dinner : Crispy Pata, Chicken Cordon Bleu, Pinaputok na Tilapia, Sinigang na Bangus and Pork Sisig.

03/11/2012 7:30 AM Off to the famous Hundred Islands. We visited 3 islands, as stated in our itinerary. First is the Governor’s Island. One of the main islands there and where the Pinoy Big Brother house is. To get a good view, you will need to do some 15 minutes hike on a rocky trek. Nakakahingal but the view at the top is whew!

We also snorkeled (where I think I got my rashes), wandered around a cave and passed through the Bat Island. I enjoyed swimming with the fishes and some giant clam sightings. Well, actually I did not swim, I was clinging on the rope the whole time. Teehee

Our day 2 swim is at the Quezon Island. Our bangkero has no idea why it was named after Quezon though. Anyway, the water here is clearer and better than with Patar Beach. Sand is finer too. My friends even compared it to Boracay, but I wouldn’t know because I have never been there. 🙂

We have culminated our trip with a walk in the market to get some longganisa (their province’s specialty) and lunch at a local fast food chain. It only lasted 2 days but I feel that we made the most out of it. It naturally feels bitin but still, these are 2 days well spent with friends. 🙂 Looking forward to more trips with them and more photos syempre! 🙂